Erbitux OK for Colorectal Cancer Patients with Genetic Marker

from USA Today

A new study shows which colorectal cancer patients may benefit from a drug - and which would be better off without it.

The drug Erbitux doesn't work in patients whose tumor has a certain genetic mutation, according to a study of nearly 600 patients, presented Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.

About 36 percent of patients in the study have the mutation, in a gene called KRAS, says co-author Eric Van Cutsem, of University Hospital Gasthuisberg in Belgium. All of the patients in the study had colorectal cancer that had spread to other organs.